IBM's insanely powerful supercomputer Watson is awesome. Obviously. But after its impressive…
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A key part of Watson's medical mission is the scanning and cataloging of millions of drug discoveries buried in medical journals and patents. Through IBM's Strategic IP Insight Platform, Watson has cataloged some 2.5 million chemical compounds. IBM has donated the database to NIH, which is a boon to scientists all over the world because it includes troves of otherwise hard to find information about expired patents.

But as ExtremeTech suggests, there's no reason the technology should be limited to medical patents when it could be used to go through all patents. It would not only make sifting through them easier, it could help battle patent trolls, too:

Then there's battling the patent trolls. SIIP is almost entirely about analyzing the state of play and producing actionable analytics. If a malevolent patent troll targets your company, SIIP could help you find prior art, or perhaps secure a protective licensing deal with an IP behemoth like IBM.

Of course, as ExtremeTech points out, it could also backfire; trolls could use SIIP to suss out weak companies with weak patent portfolios and sick their legal beagles on them at will.

So it's a double-edged sword. SIIP could be used to both help or hinder our current patent calamity. For now at least, IBM doesn't have plans to apply SIIP outside of medicine. But in time, hopefully Watson will rise to a higher calling: vanquishing of trolls like it did so many Daily Doubles. [ExtremeTech via HackerNews; Image via IBM]